Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle, Mayor Bruce Harrell, and Chief of Police Shon Barnes on behalf of Christian organizers for Mayday USA, a grassroots revival event. The Mayday gathering was unconstitutionally targeted and restricted due to the event’s religious speech and expression. The city unlawfully denied the organizers a permit to peacefully assemble at a traditional downtown location due to its religious message and steered the May 24 event to a park in a predominantly “LGBTQ+ community” where violent attacks from agitators ensued.

Liberty Counsel represents several lead Mayday organizers, such as Russell Johnson, lead pastor of The Pursuit, a Christian church in Washington; Jenny Donnelly, founder and president of Her Voice Movement, Inc.; and other lead organizers Robert Donnelly and Ross Johnston. The plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction restraining the city from continuing its unlawful permitting process that violates the rights to free speech, religious exercise, peaceable assembly, and equal protection, as well as granting them equal access to Seattle’s streets and traditional public forums.

The Mayday USA organizers requested access to Pike Street, a traditional public forum home to frequent constitutionally protected expressive activity. The purpose of the event was to worship, advocate against abortion and human trafficking, and advocate for protecting children and the family unit. City officials refused to grant the permit over its scope and lack of community support despite the city’s permitting scheme not containing such requirements. In fact, the lawsuit notes shutting down speech on the basis of listener reaction alone is a First Amendment violation.

Instead of Pike Street, city officials urged the organizers to use Cal Anderson Park “in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood”—Seattle’s Capitol Hill. During the event, violent gender-confused and antifa rioters dressed in black and wearing face masks assaulted the Christians in attendance with “urine-filled balloons,” pepper spray, tear gas, threats, and other obscene behaviors. Police eventually shut down the event. Afterward, Seattle Mayor Harrell blamed the Mayday violence on the peaceful Christian victims by stating that they “picked” Cal Anderson Park “to provoke a reaction.” Mayor Harrell described the event as “right wing” and opposed to the “city’s values.” His public condemnation also incited “a mob of hecklers” to publicly express equal condemnation of the Christian organizers for the violence they suffered.

The lawsuit specifically contends that Seattle’s Special Event Permitting Scheme “vests unbridled discretion” into the hands of city officials to deny a permit and shut down an event based on the views expressed by the applicant and the views expressed at the event, as well as based on listener reaction to those views.

City permitting schemes that condition First Amendment exercise based on “conformity” with what Mayor Harrell described as the “city’s values” is unconstitutionally discriminatory, states the lawsuit.

“Mayday’s voice was silenced by the city’s weaponization of the unbridled discretion granted to it under its permitting scheme…to target, censor, and unconstitutionally restrict Mayday’s religious beliefs, expression, and speech,” concluded Liberty Counsel. “Simply put, ‘majority votes do not, as such, defeat First Amendment protections.’”

Throughout the month of May, the organizers planned Mayday revival events in five major U.S. cities—New York, Miami, Houston, Seattle, and Los Angeles. The five-city tour was a “Mayday” call for a nationwide Christian revival and to awaken America’s parents and politicians to the Gospel, and the need to protect children, families, and the nation’s religious freedoms. The events were permitted and held in the first three cities, though Los Angeles officials denied the organizers a permit to peacefully assemble on Hollywood Boulevard even though a few days later the city permitted the LA Pride Parade in the same location. Liberty Counsel has also filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles on behalf of Mayday USA organizers.

Mayday USA is inspired by a grassroots movement in Peru called “#DontMessWithOurKids.” Peruvian parents took to the streets, not in violence, but in prayer and worship, and took a stand against gender ideology and abortion. The movement helped change the government’s leadership, and as a result, gender confusion is now officially classified as a mental illness in Peru, and life is defined as beginning at conception.  

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The City of Seattle not only infringed on the First Amendment rights of Mayday organizers, but it set conditions for violence and blamed that violence on peaceful Christians. Silencing the peaceful public expression of Christian viewpoints cannot be tolerated. The city’s unconstitutional permitting scheme cannot withstand First Amendment scrutiny and causes irreparable harm to free speech.”